Yep! I actually had a friend who worked for a similar reserve years ago, and she has a bunch of pictures of her hanging out in her house with tiger cubs! They don't stay too long, at some point it gets dangerous and they have different needs, and then they would be moved to a proper enclosure.

I've heard as they get older they get more aggressive. But what do I know, I'm just some guy. I do know that my father raised many raccoons when he was younger. They got more mean the older they got. Their explorations into the woods would get longer and longer, until one day they didn't return.

Source of this video talked about it before. It differs from cub to cub, based on their behavior and needs. These two had Wobbler‘s Syndrome and needed quite intense care for longer than unusual. They built them a special sun room so they could get proper care (and not destroy the living spaces lmao). I think they also got a lot hands on exposure to their care givers out of necessity and were thus handled longer. Derek basically said you realize when you need to get out. They have two tiger cubs right now, also rescues, that are pretty feisty and moved outside way earlier than these two could.

That’s right! Araali and Zuberi live at C.A.R.E., the center for animal research and education, in Texas. Their Instagram @carerescuetexas and Derek runs the place with his wife, Heidi. His Instagram @bigcatderek and his YouTube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC10bxQVVz1dJSIUC-f5hJdA

This isn't the same "rescue facility" that pops up on Reddit every once in a while with cute wildlife videos when in reality the facility is really sketchy, is it? I can't recall the name of it...something like White Tiger Black...Jaguar or Leopard or something

A responsible mama also needs to clean and have some her time so setting up the Cubs with a movie is just fine, when the big daddy lions out working 9-5 catching antelopes and it’s one mama doing her thing you gotta cut the mama some slack.

Well on one hand, we have videos like this, created by the people who raise animals that way for a living... and on another, we have the news, which isn't going to show some mundane training life, but when abuse comes into play it's a big deal and newsworthy. Just because that's what we see doesn't mean it's the whole picture. It's like a home-schooler saying that the school shootings they see on the news mean that all public schools have shootings like that on a regular basis. Yeah, it's on the news, but do you expect the daily, normal activities of a school to be on the news too?

Actually, the other hand comes from non-profits directly working to end animal cruelty.

It's been established time and again that the entertainment industry isn't a place for lions, tigers, zebras, elephants, camels, etc. The life they lead is nothing like what they deserve. It's built on pain, confusion, and exploitation. You cannot tell me that lions should be kept in a circus. That's ridiculous.

That first hand is from the industry itself. You think they're gonna shed light on all the horrendous shit that happens to animals? No. And they actually have a profit motive.

Yes of course they do. The media totally controls how many people see the outside world and so they see the outside world as a giant piece of click bait. I've talked to people from some extremely dangerous parts of the world who think the USA is a perpetual war zone, based entirely on what they see/read from major media.

Heck, that's what I picture when I think of most of the Middle-East even though I know it's wrong. It's hard to imagine there being average, every-day life just like here because all we see are the things that are newsworthy.

Bingo. What's sad is its only going to get worse. The more targeted media becomes the more people only see the stuff they want to see (that either outrages them or feeds their worldview). And that inevitably leads to the mindset of "well XYZ is bad, so let's ban it" even though XYZ has never actually impacted their life and likely never will. The very fact that the banning of XYZ will have zero effect on them is one of the primary reasons they can feel strongly about its removal. Heck, I don't drink so why not ban all alcohol, it won't effect me anyway (other then the fact that doing so is morally wrong in a free country and that it's been repeatedly proven banning crap is mostly ineffective). /rant

Circuses use inhumane means to train animals. They also cannot provide the animals with the enclosures they need. They spend most of their time locked in small cages. Animal welfare experts largely agree that circus life for exotic animals is stressful and inhumane. Stop trying to defend this shit.

I am hijacking the top comments to give credit to the content creator. This is Big Cat Derek. You can find him on Instagram or YouTube. He runs an animal sanctuary with his wife, Heidi. They are awesome people!

When I was about 4 , my mom took me to the drive in to see this movie......... Needless to say, after Mufasa was murdered, I legit started hysterically crying and we ended up having to leave the theatre...... I cried the rest of the night.....it was traumatizing for me.

To bring the mood down incredibly, these cubs‘ dad actually did die last year unexpectactly when he was only around 5 years old. They also had a brother who passed away as a cub, some sort of genetic heart failure iirc. Their mom & grandma are still kicking and enjoying the sun though (and just fiy the place is a rescue. These cubs were a surprise since their parents matured way earlier than expected and their mom was bred for a research project)

Yeah it’s a really sad thing, especially because their cats usually get pretty old! They have a 21 y/o leopard who is basically a grumpy old man, it’s really cute & nice to see that they‘re taken care of.

IDK I think simbas a bad role model. They are going to think they can fart around with grub eaters their entire teen years and then just get lucky and become king when they grow up. Glorifying the Lion life. They need some reality. They should visit The Elephant Graveyard. Where elephants go...to diiieee.

For those that are curious/concerned, this video is from BigCatDerek. He and his wife run a non-profit big cat rescue called CARE in Texas. These two boys are named Araali and Zuberi, they now live in a big enclosure and only get human contact through a fence (for obvious reasons).

I always find it fascinating that animals recognize cartoons. That kind of abstraction seems like the kind of thing at least a few species wouldn't recognize. It seems like all kinds of mammals and avians do recognize cartoon animals though.

It's so cool, I love to watch nature documentaries with my dog. They aren't cartoons but she still loves to stare at the animals. I remember how intensely she looked at one of the Planet Earth II episodes, I think it was the one with the hyenas.

I think the praise goes to the animators, the visuals cats use arent features, but movements. A lot of stuff captured by camera doesnt show the distinct seamless movements that the animal makes, but cartoon animators can make the movements a lot more distinct, and it seems to me that they are easier to recognize for cats. I remember watching the lion king a few years ago after a long time and being surprised at how realistic the movements of the cubs can be

These guys are at CARE Rescue Texas, they’re not exactly pets. They just had to stay inside for a while to recover from a disease when they were cubs. They’re huge now and live in a really really nice enclosure.

We have an Arctic wolf hybrid (high content). A documentary about Arctic wolves came on TV and I got excited to see how she'd react. She could not have cared less, even when they howled. I did learn from watching not to piss her off though

Is it possible she couldn't see it? I remember reading somewhere that dogs have poorer vision than us and high framerates may not work well for them. But not reacting to howling does make it seem like she wasn't interested.

Normally, I’d agree with you. No person should keep wild animals as a pet. Did you know there are more Tigers kept illegally as pets in Texas than there are in the wild?

However, I’m willing to bet that the “owner” of these two is probably a professionally trained zoologist, and is likely only keeping them in this housing temporarily during early stage developments for monitoring growth and health.

They live in a big cat rescue called CARE in Texas- and yeah, they were only kept inside when they were that little. They don't have human interaction inside their pen now (just through the fence) and they're fully grown now.

Please spay and neuter your pets! While your newborn pets are cute, failing to do this allows your little darlings to add to the population of homeless animals. Adopt pets from your local animal rescues/shelters, there are plenty of animals just waiting for a home.